Many information workers spend a considerable portion of their workdays using personal computers. For many users, this means switching between several different application programs to perform different tasks as needed. For instance, many users utilize a word processor or spreadsheet as their primary application program. They may also use other application programs secondarily as needed. For many users, this means switching between a primary application program, such as a word processor, that is executing in the foreground, to a secondary application program, such as an electronic mail (“e-mail”) client application, that is executing in the background.
The switch between a primary application program and an e-mail client application executing in the background is frequently performed when a sound is played by the e-mail client application indicating that a new e-mail message has been received. Users switch to the e-mail client application typically to see who the message is from and what the message concerns. It may be frustrating for a user to switch away from their primary application to the e-mail client application only to find that the new e-mail message is unimportant or even unsolicited e-mail (called “spam”). The user then must switch back to the primary application program and resume their work.
Not only is it frustrating for a user to switch between application programs only to discover that a new e-mail message is unimportant, it is also costly. In particular, although it may only take a few seconds to switch between applications, these few seconds may add up to a substantial amount of time if done many times during a workday. Moreover, it also takes a large amount of time for a user to regain mental focus on the work being performed in the primary application program following a switch to an e-mail client application program. This type of interruption to the concentration of a user can seriously affect productivity if done many times during a workday.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.